Odd task relationships

[fullstacks]

I have set up my project on a 10 hour a day work schedule. I have most of my
tasks linked from finish to start. The problem is that if one task has a 1
day duration and finishes on Monday, and is linked to its subsequent task in
a FS relationship, the subsequent task is also starting on Monday, not the
following day. There is no lead or lag time assigned to either task. I look
at the work in calendar view and the two tasks overlap a little on the
Monday, but the Gantt chart shows them happening sequentially, with no
overlap. I figure I have the work calendar set up incorrectly.

Why is the software overlapping the work? I don't want any lag or leadt
time. I need the work to happen sequentially. If task 1 finishes on Moday
and has 1 day duration, with no hours or resources assigned to it, then the
following task should begin on Tuesday, right?

 

[John]

I have set up my project on a 10 hour a day work schedule. I have most of my
tasks linked from finish to start. The problem is that if one task has a 1
day duration and finishes on Monday, and is linked to its subsequent task in
a FS relationship, the subsequent task is also starting on Monday, not the
following day. There is no lead or lag time assigned to either task. I look
at the work in calendar view and the two tasks overlap a little on the
Monday, but the Gantt chart shows them happening sequentially, with no
overlap. I figure I have the work calendar set up incorrectly.

Why is the software overlapping the work? I don't want any lag or leadt
time. I need the work to happen sequentially. If task 1 finishes on Moday
and has 1 day duration, with no hours or resources assigned to it, then the
following task should begin on Tuesday, right?

fullstacks,
You are probably correct in that you don't have you calendar set up
properly. You don't specify exactly how the 10 hour day should look but
here is how I set up a test file to prepare these instructions.
1. Go to Tools/Change Working Time
2. Hit "New" at the bottom of the Change Working TIme window
3. Select the option to "create a new base calendar"
4. On the calendar display on the Change Working TIme window, select the
header for M through F (this assumes your 10 hour days is only 5 days a
week). This will effectively highlight all working days for all months.
5. In the "from" and "to" boxes for shift times, set the start and
finish times (I used 8:00 am to 6:00 pm with no lunch break)
6. Hit the "Options" button at the bottom of the Change Working TIme
window (that brings up the Tools/Options/Calendar tab)
7. Set the default start and end times to agree with those set in step 5
8. Set the Hours per day to 10 and you might want to set the Hours per
week to 50 (these settings tell Project how to calculate the Duration
field).
9. Hit the "Set as default" and then "OK"
10. Hit "OK" in the Change Working TIme window
11. Finally, go to Project/Project Information and set the Calendar to
be the one you created. That will put all new tasks on your customized
calendar. If you already have tasks in your plan you will need to select
them and go to Project/Task Information/Advanced tab and set the
calendar for those to your new customized calendar.

Now your linked 10 hour/day tasks should finish on one day and start on
the next.

Hope this helps.
John
Project MVP

 

[JulieS]

Hi fullstacks,

It sounds as though there may be a mis-match between your project
calendar and the definition Project uses for a day. You may want to
change the date format to show time (Tools > Options, General tab).
Chances are you have changed the project calendar to a 10 hour day, but
the definition of a "day" to Project is still 8 hours. So a 1 day
duration task is only 8 hours long with the successor task starting
Monday afternoon.

Take a look at FAQ #5 "Default Working Hours" at:
http://project.mvps.org/faqs.htm

I hope this helps. Let us know how you get along.

Julie